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India’s TCS To Power Israel’s First Fully Digital Bank

India’s Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. will launch Israel's first fully digital bank, in what is seen as a transformative initiative that can impact the business model of other sectors as well.

TCS was selected by Israel's Ministry of Finance to transform the country’s banking sector by building a banking service bureau that would serve as a shared, plug-and-play, digital banking operations platform—powered by TCS BaNCS Global Banking Platform—to help startup banks launch their operations very quickly.

"This initiative is seen as a bid to boost competition in the financial services sector, spark greater innovation and enhance customer experience by democratising access to banking in Israel by making financial services accessible to the consumer," TCS said in a statement on Wednesday.

"It will serve as an online financial superstore through which an ecosystem of providers of services and products, such as insurance and credit cards, can reach out to the new generation of digital natives," it added.

The yet-to-be-named digital bank, which will be launched next year, is the first to receive a banking licence in Israel in over 40 years.

The fully digital bank will have no physical branches and will provide Israelis with all the services that regular brick-and mortar-banks offer, including credit, deposits, loans, account management, securities trading and processing. The new bank will also have access to all of Bank of Israel's liquidity tools and various payment systems.

“We have achieved a key milestone in the Israeli financial services industry by being onboarded on to TCS' Banking Services Bureau. This approach will reduce the cost of banking for the average citizen and foster development of innovative differentiated services," Shouky Oren, the chairman of the new bank, was quoted as saying.